Processing facilities are often managed using process control systems. Example processing facilities include manufacturing plants, chemical plants, crude oil refineries, and ore processing plants. Among other operations, process control systems typically manage the use of motors, valves, and other industrial equipment in the processing facilities. Process control systems routinely include one or more wireless networks containing various wireless devices, such as wireless sensors and wireless actuators.
Devices in wireless networks (such as wireless networks in process control systems, batch control systems, or building HVAC control systems) may need to be synchronized in time with one another. This may be necessary or desirable for various reasons, such as to ensure that one wireless node transmits data at a time when another wireless node is prepared to receive the data. However, robust and accurate time synchronization is often very difficult to achieve, particularly in large wireless networks. This problem is exacerbated by the dynamic nature of wireless links between the wireless devices.